1. NMFS RELEASES DRAFT INTERIM BIOP FOR POWER SYSTEM

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The National Marine Fisheries Service has released a draft of a supplemental
biological opinion on operation of the Columbia River federal power system
to federal and state agencies, along with tribes, for quick review. It
hopes to complete the BiOp by the spring 2000 juvenile migration.
The draft biological opinion, which is a supplement to similar BiOps
released in 1995 and 1998 for the Columbia River hydroelectric projects,
addresses the addition of six species of salmon and ...

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3. GOVERNANCE PLAN LOSES LOCKES SUPPORT

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Washingtons Gov. Gary Locke will not be in lock step with his peers
from Idaho, Montana and Oregon in their efforts to claim more regional
clout in fish and wildlife recovery planning decisions.
Citing stronger priorities, representatives of Gov. Locke have said
he no longer supports a Columbia Basin governance proposal being developed
by Govs. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, Marc Racicot of Montana and John Kitzhaber
of Oregon. The governors' staff members met Dec. 21 via conference ...

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5. PGE, TRIBES TO CO-OWN DESCHUTES DAMS

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Co-ownership of two lower Deschutes River hydroelectric dams will settle
a long-standing dispute between Portland General Electric and the Warm
Springs Tribes about who should be licensed to operate the dams. The settlement
had been in the works since the spring of 1999.
Both PGE, which holds the license for the Pelton/Round Butte complex
of dams, and the tribes, which own property bordering the Deschutes River
where the dams are located, have already applied for separate hydro ...

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6. NMFS ISSUES UPPER SNAKE BIOP ON FLOWS

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A supplemental biological opinion completed last month blesses a plan
to continue federal operations which times the release of 427,000 acre
feet of reservoir water in Idaho to coincide, primarily, with the migration
of Snake River fall chinook salmon listed Endangered Species Act.
That National Marine Fisheries Services decision was made to the chagrin
of the state of Idaho, which maintains that it has sovereignty over water
uses within its bounds. The Bureau of Reclamations principle ...

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8. NMFS COUNTERS A-FISH CRITICISMS

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The National Marine Fisheries Service counters some criticisms, agrees
with others and essentially says, "we'll get back to you" regarding other
perceived shortfalls in its Anadromous Fish Appendix and a late-produced
addendum to that document.
Among the incomplete tasks are rationalizations for differing conclusions
reached by the two analytical methods being used to judge the effects of
alternative Lower Snake River dam operations' on fish.
The federal agency in a Nov. 16 document ...

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9. TRUNCATED PATH WINDS DOWN IN MARCH

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With 13 tasks left to finish before its funding runs out March 31, 2000,
scientists with PATH -- the Plan for Analyzing and Testing Hypotheses,
a multi-agency Columbia Basin salmon science team -- are saying that their
final products will have less detail than planned when they initially submitted
their budget.
At a meeting this week of the multi-agency Implementation Team, Dave
Marmorek, PATH facilitator, reported that PATH will complete the 13 closeout
tasks given it by the ...

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10. TMT LOOKS AT PROTOCOL CHANGES

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The Technical Management Team -- a group of state and federal power
and fish managers who steer river operations during the salmon migration
season -- is discussing changes to its meeting days and the way it releases
information to the public.
The change in days could affect the ability of river operators to implement
recommendations quickly, while the change in how it releases information
could hamper public input.
At an Implementation Team meeting this week, Cindy Henriksen, U.S. ...

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16. KITZHABER SIGNS UP FOR SALMON FRIENDLY POWER

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Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber signed up to get salmon-friendly power at
his home beginning this week. He chose one of two green electricity options
offered by Portland General Electric.
Salmon-friendly power consists of electricity generated from renewable
resources that do not impact the Northwests salmon resources, such as
electricity generated by solar or wind. According to "For the Sake of the
Salmon," salmon-friendly power can also be generated from low-impact hydropower,
but it will be

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1. FEDS RELEASE SALMON RECOVERY DOCUMENTS

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Federal agencies released a pair of documents today that they say represent
a first step toward resolving scientific uncertainties and contradictions,
and providing the economic analysis necessary to build a Columbia Basin
fish and wildlife recovery plan.
The documents include a study of options for improving conditions for
salmon and steelhead in the Lower Snake River and a Basinwide recovery
analysis that reveals serious extinction risks for Upper Columbia and Snake
River ...

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2. CORPS EXPANDS ECONOMIC INFORMATION

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Breaching the four lower Snake River dams would increase the cost of
power, the cost to transport goods downriver from eastern Washington and
western Idaho and impact irrigators.  The costs would outweigh the
benefits, according to information released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
this morning.
However, other alternatives to breaching that call for maximum transportation
of juvenile fish or adding major system improvements come with more benefits
than costs.  System ...

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3. CONGRESS TO HOLD HEARINGS ON ALL HS

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In response to the release of two major federal reports on salmon recovery
options, two Northwest senators said they plan to hold hearings next year
and seek a regional consensus.
But one of them, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, questioned the science used
by federal agencies to develop their "All-H Paper" on salmon recovery options
and the apparently inconsistent positions on dam removal among their scientists.
"I seriously question the science they have used," Crapo, who chairs
the fisheries,

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5. NMFS SCIENTISTS LIST DREDGING CONCERNS

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An internal National Marine Fisheries Service document lists the concerns
the agencys Northwest Science Center has about the impact on salmon of
a proposal to deepen the Columbia River shipping channel by 3 feet.
In the Dec. 2 letter that addressed the Science Centers concerns about
the projects impacts on the Columbia River estuary, John Stein of the
Science Center said that even though deepening the channel is a difficult
project to evaluate, it still is one more action that degrades the

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10. CBB INTERVIEW: GARY JAMES, CBFWA

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EDITORS NOTE: On a regular basis the CBB will be interviewing key participants
in efforts to protect and restore Columbia River Basin fish and wildlife
populations.
 
Fish and wildlife managers need to stop bickering and unify their stand
as they embark on the monumental task of subbasin planning, says Gary James,
new chairman of the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authoritys Anadromous
Fish Managers Caucus.
CBFWA is a consortium of 13 basin tribes, the four state fish ...

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11. FEDS EXPLAIN ALL-H PROCESS AT SPOKANE MEETING

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The federal caucus members have not yet named a preferred alternative
in any of its fish and wildlife recovery planning processes.
Thats not the case for an audience that gathered Wednesday in Spokane
for an update on the caucus' "All-H's" working paper and other federal
works in progress. Most of those who spoke out said "save the dams."
Drafts of the federal caucus' All Hs (formerly 4-H) paper and the Corps
of Engineers Lower Snake River Juvenile Salmon Passage feasibility study
and ...

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13. THE STATES NWPPC: YEAR IN REVIEW

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Key dates and data rest in the new millennium for a number of planning
processes intended to propel the regions Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife
program down a new path.
The bulk of the Northwest Power Planning Council's 1999 effort was focused
in three separate but related areas -- providing more scientific and financial
accountability in its fish and wildlife project selection process; building
a scientific framework on which to base an amended program; and then reshaping
the ...

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14. FEDS AND FISH: YEAR IN REVIEW

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Though deadlines kept getting pushed further into the future, federal
agencies worked intently through much of 1999 to devise a long-term Columbia
Basin fish and wildlife recovery strategy, and a plan to pay for it.
While a strictly defined federal "1999 decision" is not imminent as
the year comes to a close, key elements were coming into public focus.
That decision process has been driven in large part by a 1995 biological
opinion which said Columbia-Snake river federal hydrosystem ...

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1. POWER NEEDS COULD FORCE FISH FLOW CHANGES

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A new study says increased demand on the Columbia Basin power supply
could reduce hydrosystem operators' flexibility to provide timely flows
that some say ease passage of migrating salmon and steelhead.
The study concludes the region, absent new generating capability, faces
a high risk of experiencing wintertime power shortages.
The study says there is a 24 percent probability there will be times
during the next few winters when the region's demand for electricity will
outstrip the ...

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4. COUNCIL APPROVES ANOTHER $18 MILLION IN PROJECTS

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The Northwest Power Planning Council this week recommended that $18.6
million worth of Columbia Basin fish and wildlife restoration projects
be funded with Bonneville Power Administration revenues, adding to the
$119 million previously approved.
Hatchery projects and phase-out funding for the scientific analytical
team PATH (See story No. 5 below) received the Council's blessing Tuesday,
pushing planned "direct program spending" to about $137.6 million for the
fiscal year that began ...

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5. COUNCIL SLASHES PATH FUNDING

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The Northwest Power Planning Council Tuesday decided to phase-out funding
for the multi-agency Columbia Basin salmon science team known as PATH --
Plan for Analyzing and Testing Hypotheses.
The broad-based group of scientists had asked for nearly $2 million
to fund seven projects and the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority
had recommended that $1.67 million be spent. The Councils Independent
Science Review Panel, however, said that the group had outlived its usefulness
and ...

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6. ISAB PREFERS NMFS NEW MODEL OVER PATH

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The National Marine Fisheries Service has reached a fork in the road
as it prepares a biological assessment of alternatives for Lower Snake
River hydrosystem configuration.
And it appears at first blush that NMFS should follow the road its own
scientists are building rather than one created by PATH, according to a
panel of scientists.
The Independent Scientific Advisory Board was called on this summer
to review the analytical methods on which NMFS based its draft Anadromous
Fish Appendix

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7. PIT TAG STUDY MEASURES FISH SURVIVAL AT DAMS

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Spill regimes and dam passage technology appear to be achieving the
goal of minimizing direct mortality for juvenile salmon migrating down
through the Snake-Columbia river hydropower system, according to an ongoing
study.
The average reach or per dam survival in 1999 for both yearling chinook
salmon and steelhead stayed in an elevated range first reached in 1995,
according to Bill Muir, principal researcher for the National Marine Fisheries
Service's survival study. That range is from ...

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8. STANDING QUESTIONS OVER SUPPLEMENTATION DISCUSSED

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A group of experts Wednesday agreed to disagree in the long-running
debate over the role of hatchery "supplementation" in Columbia Basin fish
recovery efforts.
But most of the panelists called together by the Northwest Power Planning
Council did agree on the need to focus research efforts to validate claims
of supplementation's benefits or risks.
Dr. Brian Riddell of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans concluded
the two-hour discussion of supplementation by noting literally ...

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9. GRANT PUD MANAGES FLOWS FOR REDDS

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Winter river flow downstream from Priest Rapids dams has been set at
a level that is expected to protect chinook egg beds throughout the Hanford
Reach in central Washington.
According to Grant County PUD, it is coordinating the effort among mid-Columbia
River dam operators to ensure chinook egg beds are covered with water until
the eggs hatch in spring 2000. A river level of 60,000 cubic feet per second
was determined by a survey of redds in the 1.5 mile section of river below
the dam ...

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11. FRAMEWORK ANALYSIS DUE IN JANUARY

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The Northwest Power Planning Council was teased Wednesday with "very
preliminary" cost estimates of seven alternative fish and wildlife management
strategies developed through its Columbia River Basin Multi-Species Framework
process, but have yet to receive results from the ongoing analysis.
A "snapshot" of the results of the biological or ecological analysis
will be produced by the end of December or early January, according to
Roy Sampsel, Framework project manager.
To follow will ...

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2. TRIBES SEEK CONSULTATIONS ON CHANNEL DEEPENING

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Northwest tribes this week suggested the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
start again in its environmental report on the effects of deepening 105
miles of the Columbia River and Willamette River shipping channel. At the
same time, it offered a timeline to the National Marine Fisheries Service
for formal consultation that could delay NMFS biological opinion of the
projects effects on endangered salmon.
In letters this week to the Corps and NMFS about the proposed project,
Don Sampson, ...

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